Self-Driving Cars and the Trolley Problem: The Possible Future of Accident Liability

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Self-Driving Cars and the Trolley Problem: The Possible Future of Accident Liability

By
Law Office of Robert Castro, P.A.
|July 18, 2016

Self-driving cars are part of the new wave of the technological highway. Artificial intelligence, or
AI, is dominating the way in which these autonomous cars are navigating the
roads. The software that is placed within the cars aids in decision-making
that would normally be in the hands of the driver, but AI rarely comes
with its own conscience. At the time that an accident is about to occur,
who should the car save - the driver or the passengers of the other car?
This leads to a significant problem, known as the Trolley Problem, that
even human beings have always been unsure how to resolve. If an out-of-control
Trolley is moving down the tracks and it has the option of killing five
people or one person, who should live or die?

How Should Self-Driving Cars Be Programmed to React to Accidents?

The self-driving cars are facing this issue as engineers are writing software
to determine how the car should react when faced with a head-on collision.
Absent a conscience and soul, the car will operate in the way that its
software will dictate. The software is created and coded by engineers,
leading the engineers to determine how best to answer such a moral and
ethical inquiry. However, some AI technology, many that are being implanted
into the self-driving cars, permits the computer an opportunity to
learn from its surroundings and an accumulation of data. With time and experience,
it will build up enough data within its AI to identify objects and people,
to analyze situations, and act depending on the probability of success
and survival. In this way, the car is no longer dependent on the consciousness
of engineers, but is now its own agent in ethical matters. Its decision
to act will be based on the accumulation of data, rather than what has
been proven to be right most of the time - human intuition.

The Difference Between Self-Learning Systems and Pre-Programmed Cars

The difference between a
self-learning system and a programmed AI may determine the future of liability cases in the event of accidents
with self-driving cars. If engineers program the AI to act in a way that
would save the most lives, then that could lead to liability on the part
of the engineers for choosing a path that may save more lives, but the
quality of those lives may differ than if a human driver makes a choice
that may have more humane consequences. In other words, society accounts
for the fact that human drivers generally operate under instinct at the
time of accident by providing some legal reprieve such as eliminating
criminal liability altogether or possibly manslaughter charges. However,
self-driving cars would have to predetermine before hitting the roads
how it might decide to act in the event that an accident is about to occur.

Would Drivers Buy Cars that Protect the “Greater Good” Over
Their Own Safety?

Overall, drivers would want to know exactly how their self-driving cars
have been programmed before purchasing them. No one will want to buy a
car hardwired to promote “the greater good” over his or her
own life; People buy cars that will best protect themselves and their
passengers, regardless of how it will affect those in other cars.

For right now, the ethical software and the path that the engineers of
the AI are looking to take is uncertain. Currently, the U.S. National
Highway Traffic Safety Administration is in the process of releasing in
July 2016 regulation for self-driving cars that will determine how the
standards that these self-driving cars must adhere to and in particular,
the safety standards before these cars are able to be manufactured and
purchased by consumers.

Charles County, MD Personal Injury Lawyers that Fight for You

If you or a loved one has been injured in an automobile accident, please call the
Law Office of Robert R. Castro at (301) 804-2312 for a confidential consultation.

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